JP5969903B2 - Control method of unmanned moving object - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a control method for an unmanned mobile object suitable for use in remote control of the movement of an unmanned mobile object equipped with a remote control camera.

  Conventionally, as a method for controlling the above-described unmanned moving body, for example, a method described in Patent Document 1 is known. In this unmanned moving body control method, a user interface is transmitted from a camera mounted on a robot. A point-and-click operation is input to the image around the robot displayed on the screen to indicate the direction in which the robot should move.

  In the above-described unmanned mobile control method, when applied to the control of a small unmanned mobile robot that moves indoors at a low speed, it is not necessary to specify a target several meters ahead by point-and-click operation. The mobile robot can be moved without hindrance. However, in the case of an unmanned vehicle type robot that moves outdoors at a high speed of about 30 km / h, for example, in a place where there are many right and left turns such as an urban area, it is not possible to promptly specify an appropriate moving direction. There is a problem, and it has been a conventional problem to solve this problem.

  Therefore, the inventors of the present invention are not limited to an unmanned moving body that moves at a low speed, for example, an unattended moving body that moves at a high speed in a place where there are many right and left turns. The application has been filed as Patent Document 2 for the purpose of being able to promptly and easily perform this instruction.

Special table 2003-532218 gazette JP 2011-170844 A

The control method of Patent Document 2 instructs the direction in which the unmanned mobile body should go by any of the following operations.
(1) The turning position and turning direction of the unmanned moving body are instructed by a point-and-click operation input on the remote control device display unit.
(2) Based on the ID recognized as a branch path by the branch path recognition function of the unmanned mobile body, the branch path is displayed on the remote control device display unit, and one of them is selected by the control device.

  Here, the “point and click operation” refers to a series of operations indicated by clicking on the position where the cursor is moved and pointing on the image after the cursor is moved to a desired position.

However, since the pointing device requires a pointing device, it is difficult to control with one hand. In particular, when a touch pen or the like is used as a pointing device, one-handed operation is virtually impossible.
In addition, in the case of selection based on branch path recognition, it is not possible to proceed in a branch path direction that the unmanned mobile body cannot recognize in advance.
Furthermore, since the behavior of the unmanned mobile body is limited, there is a problem that an appropriate action instruction cannot be given on a plain where there is no road, for example.

  The present invention has been developed to solve the above-described problems. That is, the object of the present invention is that the unmanned moving body can be advanced in the direction of the branch road that the unmanned moving body cannot recognize in advance, and an appropriate action instruction can be given even on a plain where there is no road. It is to provide a method for controlling an unmanned mobile body.

According to the present invention, there is provided a control method for an unmanned moving body that remotely controls the unmanned moving body by a remote control device,
The unmanned mobile body has a remote control camera that captures an image in front of it.
The remote control device includes a display unit that displays the image of the remote control camera, and marker moving means,
The display unit displays a marker indicating a target position to which the unmanned mobile body is headed,
The marker is displayed at a position away from the current position of the unmanned moving object on the display unit in the moving direction, and the interval on the display unit between the current position and the marker is proportional to the moving speed of the unmanned moving object,
The marker moving means is capable of moving the marker on the display unit,
By moving the marker on the display unit by the marker moving means, unmanned moving, characterized in that, to move the unmanned movable body toward the target position in the world coordinate system corresponding to the position of the marker on the display unit A body control method is provided.

  The unmanned mobile body or the remote control device has a coordinate conversion function for performing coordinate conversion in real time between the world coordinate system on the unmanned mobile body side and the image coordinate system on the remote control device side.

  The unmanned moving body has an obstacle avoidance function of moving toward the target position while avoiding the obstacle when there is an obstacle between the current position and the target position.

  Further, the unmanned mobile body has a branch path recognition function that autonomously selects and moves the branch path direction toward the target position when the branch path is recognized.

  The marker moving means is preferably a joystick or a handle that can indicate a direction.

According to the above-described method of the present invention, the target position in the world coordinate system corresponding to the position of the marker on the display unit is continuously indicated by moving the marker on the display unit of the remote control device by the marker moving means. The unmanned moving body can be moved toward the target position.
Since the operation of the marker moving means is only an operation of moving the marker on the display unit, maneuvering is facilitated by reducing the amount of operation.
Further, even when the unmanned mobile body cannot recognize the branch path in advance, it can recognize the branch path and advance the unmanned mobile body in the direction of the target position.
Furthermore, even in a plain where there is no road, the marker can indicate the target position to which the unmanned mobile body should head, and appropriate action instructions can be given.

It is a schematic diagram which shows the control method of the unmanned mobile body of this invention. It is a block diagram of an unmanned mobile body. It is a block diagram of the control apparatus of an unmanned mobile body. It is a conceptual diagram of the coordinate transformation employ | adopted as the control method of an unmanned mobile body. It is a block diagram which shows the function which the computer for vehicle control of an unmanned mobile body has. It is explanatory drawing which shows an obstruction avoidance function and a branch path recognition function.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In each figure, common portions are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description is omitted.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a method for controlling the unmanned mobile body B of the present invention.
The control method of the present invention is a control method for an unmanned mobile body B in which the unmanned mobile body B is remotely controlled by a remote control device A as shown in FIG.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of the unmanned mobile body B.
The unmanned moving body B can travel autonomously and is controlled by the vehicle control computer 10 and the autonomous movement computer 30 connected to the vehicle control computer 10 via the LAN 11 (see FIG. 3).

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a control device of the unmanned mobile unit B.
The unmanned mobile body B has a remote control camera 14 that captures an image in front of it.
That is, in FIG. 3, a wireless LAN 13 connected to the antenna 12 and a remote control camera 14 are connected to the input side of the vehicle control computer 10 via the input / output circuit 15, and the GPS 16 for acquiring position information A vertical gyro 17 for posture control and a vehicle speed pulse 18 for measuring a moving speed are connected via a serial line.

  A steering actuator 22 and a brake / accelerator actuator 23 are connected to the output side of the vehicle control computer 10 via a motor driver 21, and these actuators 22, 23 and wheels 24 (see FIG. 2). The drive unit 20 is constituted by these.

Vehicle control computer 10 has a function of transmitting to the remote control apparatus A via the GPS16 and various kinds of information-free lines LAN13 and antenna 12 acquired in vertical gyro 17. The vehicle control computer 10 further has a function of operating and stopping the steering actuator 22 and the brake / accelerator actuator 23 via the motor driver 21 based on the operation information transmitted from the remote control device A. .

  On the other hand, on the input side of the computer 30 for autonomous movement, a laser sensor 31 suitable for short-range information acquisition and autonomous movement cameras 32 and 33 suitable for long-distance information acquisition are connected. The moving computer 30 calculates a travelable route and speed based on the acquired short distance information and long distance information, and operates the steering actuator 22 and the brake / accelerator actuator 23 to autonomously move the unmanned moving body B. Let it run.

In this example, the image data acquired from the remote control camera 14 is input to the vehicle control computer 10 via the input / output circuit 15 and subjected to data compression processing, and then the remote control device via the wireless LAN 13 and the antenna 12. Sent to A.
The image data may be transmitted directly from the remote control camera 14 without using the vehicle control computer 10.

  In FIG. 1, the remote control device A includes a display unit 40 that displays an image of the remote control camera 14 and a marker moving unit 50.

Remote control apparatus A is further provided with a control unit 60 for the exchange of vehicle control computer 10 and the autonomous mobile computer 30 and the data. The display unit 40 is incorporated in the control unit 60 together with a CPU, a keyboard 61, and an antenna 62 (not shown).

The marker moving means 50 is a manual operation device that can indicate a direction with one hand, and is, for example, a joystick or a handle.
When the marker moving means 50 is not operated, it is preferable that the marker moving means 50 returns to the neutral position and maintains the straight traveling direction. In addition, the marker moving means 50 is not limited to this, You may hold | maintain the direction just before it in the state which is not operated.
In this example, the marker moving means 50 is incorporated in the control unit 60 together with the keyboard 61. Note that the marker moving unit 50 may be separated from the control unit 60 and various information may be transmitted to and received from the control unit 60.

The display unit 40 displays an image of the remote control camera 14 mounted on the unmanned mobile body B, and displays a marker M indicating a target position to which the unmanned mobile body B should go.
The marker M is displayed at a position away from the current position S of the unmanned moving body B on the display unit 40 in the moving direction. Preferably, the interval L on the display unit 40 between the current position S and the marker M is proportional to the moving speed of the unmanned moving body B. The interval L may be fixed.

The marker moving means 50 can move the marker M on the display unit 40.
Specifically, in FIG. 1, when the marker moving means 50 is a joystick, and more tilting the joystick to the left or right, while keeping the distance L of the current position S and the marker M, moving the marker M to the left and right Can do. The direction from the current position S toward the marker M is the direction in which the unmanned mobile body B should go.
Similarly, when the marker moving means 50 is a handle, the marker M can be moved to the left and right while maintaining the distance L between the current position S and the marker M by rotating the handle to the left and right.

The unmanned vehicle B or the remote control device A has a coordinate conversion function F1 that performs coordinate conversion in real time between the world coordinate system on the unmanned mobile device B side and the image coordinate system on the remote control device A side.
In this example, the remote control device A converts the position of the marker M on the display unit 40 from the image coordinate system of the remote control device A to the world coordinate system of the unmanned moving body B by the coordinate conversion function F1, and after the conversion Are transmitted to the vehicle control computer 10 of the unmanned moving body B at a predetermined cycle as a target position to which the unmanned moving body B should go. The predetermined period is, for example, a control cycle, and is preferably substantially real time.

  Similarly, in this example, the vehicle control computer 10 mounted on the unmanned moving body B also has a coordinate conversion function F1, and is a marker based on the image coordinate system indicated on the image of the display unit 40 of the remote control device A. The position of M is converted into the world coordinate system, and the steering actuator 22 and the brake / accelerator actuator 23 are operated via the motor driver 21 based on the position coordinates in the world coordinate system after the conversion, so that the world coordinate system is obtained. The unmanned mobile body B is made to travel toward the converted target position.

  Further, the vehicle control computer 10 uses the coordinate conversion function F1 to display position information in the world coordinate system obtained by the laser sensor 31 on the unmanned moving body B side and the cameras 32 and 33 for autonomous movement in the display unit 40 of the remote control device A. It is converted to the image coordinate system and is transmitted to the remote control device A every moment.

FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram of coordinate transformation adopted in the control method of the unmanned mobile body B.
As shown in FIG. 4, a point (X, Y, Z) in a coordinate system (X: traveling direction, Y: left, Z: up) with the direction of the unmanned moving body B as an axis, or a bird's-eye view map (X, Y , 0) which pixel (x, y) on the image of the display unit 40 corresponds to the data observed on the display unit 40 can be obtained by a corresponding pixel calculation formula disclosed in Patent Document 2.

According to the method of the present invention described above, the marker M is moved on the display unit 40 of the remote control device A by the marker moving means 50 as shown in FIG. The unmanned moving body B can be moved toward the target position in the corresponding world coordinate system.
Since the marker moving means 50 is only an operation of moving the marker M on the display unit 40, maneuvering is facilitated by reducing the operation amount.
Further, when the marker moving means 50 is not operated, the straight traveling direction (or the immediately preceding direction) is maintained, and the marker M can be continuously displayed and moved continuously in the same direction.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating functions of the vehicle control computer 10 of the unmanned mobile body B.
As shown in FIG. 5, the vehicle control computer 10 has an autonomous movement function F2, an area extraction function F3, an obstacle avoidance function F4, and a branch path recognition function F5 in addition to the coordinate conversion function F1 described above. Yes.

The autonomous movement function F2 is a function for autonomously moving the unmanned moving body B toward the target position in the world coordinate system corresponding to the position of the marker M on the display unit 40.
The area extraction function F3 is a function for extracting a movable area in the movement area from the distance measurement data acquired by the laser sensor 31 and the autonomous movement cameras 32 and 33.
The obstacle avoidance function F4 is a function of avoiding an obstacle and moving toward the target position when an obstacle exists between the current position S and the target position of the unmanned mobile body B.
The branch road recognition function F5 is a function that recognizes a branch road by the area extraction function F3 and the obstacle avoidance function F4, and automatically moves the branch road direction toward the target position when the branch road is recognized. is there.

  In addition, it is preferable to have a route planning function, a speed planning function, and an approach distance determination function.

  FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing the obstacle avoidance function F4 and the branch path recognition function F5. In this figure, (A) shows a case where the unmanned mobile body B is moved straight, and (B) shows a case where the unmanned mobile body B is moved in the direction of an obstacle or a branch path.

In the control method of the present invention, an obstacle (in this case, the outer wall of a building) exists between the current position S and the target position of the unmanned moving body B in the world coordinate system, as shown in FIG. In this case, the unmanned moving body B moves toward the target position while avoiding the obstacle by the obstacle avoiding function F4 of the unmanned moving body B.
By this control method, even if the position of the marker M on the display unit 40 is erroneously operated to a position where it interferes with the obstacle, the obstacle avoidance function F4 can avoid the obstacle and move the unmanned mobile body B. it can.

Further, by having both the area extraction function F3 and the obstacle avoidance function F4, a function of recognizing a branch path (branch path recognition function F5) is provided. Specifically, for example, information on features in the moving area such as white lines and stop lines drawn on the road, and obstacles inside and outside the road are acquired by the laser sensor 31 and the autonomous movement cameras 32 and 33. By using both the area extraction function F3 and the obstacle avoidance function F4, the branching path can be recognized by separating the passable part and the other part.
When map information is available, the branch path can be recognized by comparing the self-location information obtained from the GPS 16 with the map information.

  In the control method of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 6B, the unmanned moving body B does not recognize the branch path in advance by moving the position of the marker M on the display unit 40 in the branch path direction. Even if the unmanned moving body B avoids the obstacle by the obstacle avoiding function F4 and moves toward the target position, and further recognizes the branch path by the branch path recognition function F5 of the unmanned moving body B in the world coordinate system. In addition, the direction of the branch road toward the target position is autonomously selected and moved.

  With this control method, even when the unmanned mobile body B cannot recognize the branch path in advance, it can recognize the branch path and advance the unmanned mobile body B in the direction of the target position.

According to the above-described method of the present invention, the marker moving means 50 moves the marker M on the display unit 40 of the remote control device A, so that the target in the world coordinate system corresponding to the position of the marker M on the display unit 40 is obtained. The position can be continuously indicated, and the unmanned moving body B can be moved toward the target position.
Since the operation of the marker moving means 50 (for example, joystick) is only an operation of moving the marker M on the display unit 40, maneuvering is facilitated by reducing the operation amount.
Further, even when the unmanned mobile body B cannot recognize the branch road in advance, it can recognize it on the branch road and advance the unmanned mobile body B in the direction of the target position.
Furthermore, even on a plain where there is no road, the marker M can indicate the target position to which the unmanned mobile body B should head, and appropriate action instructions can be given.

  The unmanned moving body B described above may be a robot that autonomously walks, an aircraft that autonomously flies, a robot that remotely controls, or an aircraft.

  In addition, this invention is not limited to embodiment mentioned above, is shown by description of a claim, and also includes all the changes within the meaning and range equivalent to description of a claim.

A remote control device, B unmanned vehicle,
S current position, M marker,
10 vehicle control computer,
11 LAN, 12 antenna, 13 wireless LAN,
14 remote control camera, 15 input / output circuit, 16 GPS,
17 vertical gyros, 18 speed pulses,
20 drive unit,
21 motor driver, 22 steering actuator,
23 Brake / accelerator actuators, 24 wheels,
30 Autonomous mobile computer,
31 Laser sensor, 32, 33 Camera for autonomous movement,
40 display section,
50 Marker moving means (joystick, handle),
60 control unit, 61 keyboard, 62 antenna

Claims (5)

A method for controlling an unmanned mobile body in which an unmanned mobile body is remotely controlled by a remote control device,
The unmanned mobile body has a remote control camera that captures an image in front of it.
The remote control device includes a display unit that displays the image of the remote control camera, and marker moving means,
The display unit displays a marker indicating a target position to which the unmanned mobile body is headed,
The marker is displayed at a position away from the current position of the unmanned moving object on the display unit in the moving direction, and the interval on the display unit between the current position and the marker is proportional to the moving speed of the unmanned moving object,
The marker moving means is capable of moving the marker on the display unit,
By moving the marker on the display unit by the marker moving means, unmanned moving, characterized in that, to move the unmanned movable body toward the target position in the world coordinate system corresponding to the position of the marker on the display unit How to control the body.   The unmanned mobile body or the remote control device has a coordinate conversion function for performing coordinate conversion in real time between a world coordinate system on the unmanned mobile body side and an image coordinate system on the remote control device side. The control method of the unmanned mobile object described.   The unmanned moving body has an obstacle avoidance function of avoiding an obstacle and moving toward the target position when an obstacle exists between the current position and the target position. The control method of the unmanned mobile body according to 1.   2. The unmanned mobile body according to claim 1, wherein when the unmanned mobile body recognizes a branch road, the unmanned mobile body has a branch road recognition function that autonomously selects and moves the branch road direction toward the target position. Control method. The method for controlling an unmanned mobile body according to claim 1, wherein the marker moving means is a joystick or a handle that can indicate a direction.

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